


The Ember Island Disaster

by theRamenShaman



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Female Friendship, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-07-02
Packaged: 2018-07-19 17:15:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7370548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theRamenShaman/pseuds/theRamenShaman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Avatar gaang watches the Ember Island Players put on "The Boy in the Iceberg," everybody is pretty upset. Toph notices the unrest and has a bonding moment with Katara over the effects of the play.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ember Island Disaster

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of the works associated with it

That hadn’t been a good play. Toph was very aware of this fact, but that didn’t make it any less hilarious. She wondered how the writer guy had managed to get so many details so incredibly right and others so terribly wrong. Her casting had been great though, she was a giant buff guy! Although to be honest she wasn’t really sure why they had cast her like that. She thought about it for a minute. Why would someone tell the writer she was big, scary, and manly? A slow grin spread over her face. Someone was embarrassed of course! Nobody wanted to be beaten by a little girl, and she’d beaten a lot of people. Boulder would have been too proud to say he’d been beat by a girl, and Toph was sure that if the play author had offered money Boulder would have jumped at the chance to clear his name. She snickered quietly.

“Honestly Toph, can you just stop it?” Katara had stopped walking and sounded angry.

“What?” Toph was surprised by her tone. What had she done to upset Katara?

“It’s just,” Katara seemed to deflate a bit “no, never mind, I’m sorry.” Katara turned around and started walking again. Toph blinked confusedly and concentrated on everyone else. She couldn’t see facial expressions, but she could tell something was wrong. They’d been walking back to the beach house for a while now and hardly anybody had said anything. Sokka and Suki seemed okay; they were walking together and holding hands. She was sure they were making stupid lovey-dovey faces at each other. One of the few advantages of being blind was that she didn’t have to see that, though hearing them flirt was gross enough. Zuko was walking alone which was also pretty normal. Katara and Aang were also alone though, and that didn’t seem right. Aang was way ahead of everyone, and he was walking really fast like he couldn’t wait to get back to the beach house. She’d known that the play had upset people, but this much? The play had been a joke. They’d all laughed hadn’t they? Toph thought back to how upset Zuko had been during intermission. He’d said that the play was bringing back his past mistakes, and that his uncle Iroh would never forgive him for what he’d done. Did anyone else feel like this? Or maybe it was the way Aang and Katara were shown. She’d known twinkle toes was sensitive, but was he really so upset about being played by a girl? What was so wrong with girls? Maybe he was more upset by how the play had shown him being defeated by the Firelord. Even that seemed like too small of a reason though. It was a Fire nation play so it made sense to have an ending like that. And why was Katara so upset? Her character had been hilarious! Or had it been? All the characters were exaggerated, but they’d really made Katara into a useless whiny goody two-shoes. The silly hope stuff was on point, but Katara wasn’t useless. She didn’t cry all the time and get constantly saved by other people. In fact, Katara was one of the strongest people Toph knew.

They’d reached the beach house while Toph had been thinking. Nobody hung around to talk like they usually did, and instead everyone went their separate ways to get ready for bed. Toph went to bed too. She didn’t feel like talking if everyone was going to be all mopey.

* * *

 

Toph woke with a start, her heart beating incredibly fast. She couldn’t remember her dream exactly, but she was left with the echo of the Firelord’s voice and a feeling of dread. She shook her head angrily. She didn’t have bad dreams. Well, maybe she did, but why now? The play? The play had been silly, it wasn’t real. Of course they were going to defeat the Firelord; they were a group of some of the most powerful benders in the world! She felt a little unsettled. Maybe she really was scared. She knew she was strong. She’d fight anybody, and she wouldn’t back down, but the Firelord was another matter. That wasn’t her fight, and the only thing she could do was train Aang. But what if Aang wasn’t ready? What if he wouldn’t be ready for a long time?

Toph got up and wandered out into the hallway. She was already awake so she might as well do some training. When Toph stepped outside she felt Katara sitting on a rock near the side of the house. Her knees were pulled up to her chin. Why was Katara awake?

“Toph?” Katara asked. “Is that you?” Toph felt she had no choice but to answer her.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“What are you doing?”

“I was just going to train a little, I uh, couldn’t sleep.” Katara lifted her head.

“You couldn’t sleep?” She scooted a little closer to Toph. “Are you alright?”

“What? Yeah I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be fine?”

“No reason, it’s just…” she sighed. “I think all of us were a little shaken after watching that play…” She trailed off. So Katara was upset. Toph had been right. Toph didn’t usually say stuff like this, but she felt like maybe Katara needed to hear it. She sat down next to Katara on the rock.

“Um, Katara?”

“Hm?”

“I don’t really think you’re like the way the play made you seem.” Toph cleared her throat. “I mean, you do that wishy-washy hope thing, but you’re not useless like your character was.”

“Thanks?” Katara laughed a bit.

“You are strong though, and you don’t cry like a little girl all the time.”

“Thank you Toph.” Toph was pretty sure Katara was staring at her.

“So why is everybody all upset? Is it really just the play? Everybody’s all upset over nothing.”

Katara sighed.“I think that play just brought up a lot of stuff that none of us really wanted to think about right now, and I guess none of us are handling it well.”

“Zuko was pretty upset.”

“About how he acted in the play? I think his actor was the most realistic.”

“Ha, yeah.” Toph thought for a moment. “I think he was mostly upset because it reminded him of how he’d hurt his uncle and stuff.” 

“Oh."

It always amazed Toph how hard it was for Katara to forgive Zuko. Katara was one of the kindest people Toph knew, and she wasn’t used to her holding grudges or getting so angry. That was Toph’s job. She understood that Zuko had really hurt the group, but he’d proven himself over and over since then. His uncle was a really good person, and he’d vouched for Zuko. And honestly, sometimes Zuko felt like more a part of the group than Toph was. Aang, Katara, and Sokka had known Zuko for so long, and when they were all working together they were a force to be reckoned with. He just naturally fit in the group. Of course they needed her to be complete; she was the world’s most powerful earthbender! Together they were an extremely powerful group. If they all worked together they could defeat the Firelord. Of course Toph was always up for a fight, but she wondered about Aang. He was really powerful, when he bothered to be, but he thought about things too much. She wondered if that was why Aang was so upset. He kept reading into things. She knew he liked Katara, it was so obvious she couldn’t ignore it if she tried. The play had portrayed Aang and Katara’s relationship as like siblings, but Toph didn’t think that was really correct. She didn’t really know the details of their relationship, and she didn’t want to. She’d much rather leave that yucky stuff out of her life, thank you! Toph was brought back to attention by Katara’s voice.

“Toph?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you worried about fighting the Firelord at all?” Katara paused. “Because I am.” 

Toph felt a little shocked. Usually Katara was the one to reassure everybody, not the one to voice her fears. The play was wrong about a lot of things, but Katara really was all about hope. And even when she did talk about stuff like this, it usually wasn’t with Toph. 

“I think we’re going to have to wait until after the comet arrives. I think we’re going to have to wait a long time after it arrives,” said Katara.

“Didn’t we already know that though?” Toph asked. “Aang won’t be ready in time.” 

“Yeah…I mean, the only reason we were waiting was to stop the war before it really started.” Katara paused for a moment. “But with what happened with Ba Sing Se I think the war has already started. The Fire Nation has already attacked, and we didn’t stop it. All we can do know is train Aang until he’s ready to defeat the Firelord.”

“ It may be hard to teach a floaty airbender to earthbend, but I’m managing.” Toph sat up straighter. “Aang is getting better every day!” 

“Yeah, he really is.” Katara stopped talking again. Toph imagined she was lost in thought. Toph felt Katara turn and lean towards her.

“It can’t get that much worse, can it?” Katara said. She didn’t sound very hopeful. “I mean, what else can they do to us?”

Toph was pretty sure that Katara knew the answer to that question. She hadn’t been through all of the horrors that Katara had been through, but the little she had experienced made her very sure that the Fire Nation was capable of even worse things. But maybe, just maybe, they’d have some time before things got worse. Because if Aang couldn’t defeat the Firelord, if the Firelord defeated Aang, then they wouldn’t even have an Avatar to help them. Toph decided to reassure Katara. It wasn’t really something she did, but today was full of new things.

“We’ll be fine!” Toph said as she gave Katara a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Now quite whining worrywart, you’re going to give me a headache!” 

Toph felt Katara rubbing her shoulder, but she bet that she was smiling too.

“Thanks Toph. But you really should go to bed now- you and Zuko have a lot of training to do with Aang tomorrow.”

“Ew, you’re not my mom!” Toph slid off the rock and ran towards the beach house. She was smiling. Katara was always looking after her, and even though it was annoying most of the time sometimes it was nice. It was nice to return the favor. Not that she’d ever let Katara mention it again. She was an earthbender, the best earthbender in the world, and she didn’t have time for any mushy feelings. She was tough! That made Toph laugh again. The play had got one thing right for sure. When the big buff actor had said his name was “Toph because it sounds like tough,” she’d laughed out loud. She was tough, and she could handle anything.


End file.
